Cron Job Question

[servermin]

I have a very large site that is running great on the server I have. A real workhorse.

I'm having an issue with the cron.php running. I have no idea where I can edit times that runs, or truly what it is doing. It is taking up 75% of the server resources, which just crashes my heavily used site.

Any ideas or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Lynne]

cron.php is run as a Scheduled Task. You can see all your Scheduled Tasks in your admin cp > Schedules Tasks > Scheduled Task Manager.

[noppid]

What is running in scheduled tasks? Are you using the rss posting bot? It runs a a lot.

[servermin]

I adjusted those options and cut way back, but still seeing this take up 95% of server resources...

[/forum/cron.php?rand1225296001


Any ideas anyone?

--------------- Added [DATE]1225335472[/DATE] at [TIME]1225335472[/TIME] ---------------

00 23 * * * Daily Statistics Log
This script updates forum stats once per day. These are the stats that are accessed from the Admin Control Panel (New Users, New Threads, New Posts, Active Users).
10-29-2008
10:00 PM

15 * * * * Restore Temporarily Banned Users
This script restores the access of temporarily banned users once an hour.
10-29-2008
10:15 PM

17 * * * * Infractions Cleanup
Removes expired infractions twice an hour.
10-29-2008
10:17 PM

34 * * * * Attachment Views
This script updates attachment views once an hour if the delayed attachment views option is enabled. This is suggested for forums with a large number of attachments or users.
10-29-2008
10:34 PM

56 * * * * Thread Views
This script updates thread views once per hour. This option is suggested for forums with large numbers of threads or users.
10-29-2008
10:56 PM

01 0 * * * Birthdays
Sends emails to users on their birthday.
10-29-2008
11:01 PM

02 0 * * * Subscriptions
Once per day, this script removes expired paid subscriptions as well as sends out reminders about soon to expire subscriptions.
10-29-2008
11:02 PM

03 0 * * * Activation Reminder Email
This script sends reminder emails to users in the Awaiting Confirmation usergroup. An email is sent one day after the user has registered and again at five days.
10-29-2008
11:03 PM

11 0 * * * Event Reminder
This script sends out calendar event reminders twice an hour.
10-29-2008
11:11 PM

43 0 * * * Daily Digest
This script sends out new post and new thread digests once per day.
10-29-2008
11:43 PM

25 1 * * * User Promotions
This script performs usergroup promotions once per hour.
10-30-2008
12:25 AM

29 22 * * * Daily Cleanup
This script performs various cleanup tasks once per day.
10-30-2008
09:29 PM

30 0 * * Mon Weekly Digest
This script sends out new post and new thread digests once per week.
11-02-2008
11:30 PM

00, 15, 30, 45 * * * * psiStats 2006 Update (15-Minute Interval)
Performs a variety of vital accounting tasks.
N/A

00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 * * * * RSS Poster Robot
Reads RSS feeds from the internet and inserts them into your board as threads or announcements.
N/A

05 * * * * Hourly Cleanup
This script performs various cleanup tasks once per hour.
N/A

10 * * * * CCBill Reversal Check
This script is only needed if you enable the CCBill payment processor. It will contact the CCBill server to check for reversed payments and update your subscriptions accordingly.
N/A

20 * * * * Hourly Cleanup #2
This script performs various cleanup tasks once per hour.

--------------- Added [DATE]1225335855[/DATE] at [TIME]1225335855[/TIME] ---------------

here is a look at the processes on the server.

Top Process	%CPU 95.4	httpd [xxxx.com] [/forum/cron.php?rand1225296001]
Top Process	%CPU 95.0	httpd [xxxx.com] [/forum/cron.php?rand1225296001]
Top Process	%CPU 94.8	httpd [xxxx.com] [/forum/cron.php?rand1225296001]
mysql		11.54	7.91	0.0
Top Process	%CPU 23.4	/usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir/ --datadir/var/lib/mysql --usermysql --pid-file/var/lib/mysql/xxxxxx.com.pid --skip-external-locking
Top Process	%CPU 23.3	/usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir/ --datadir/var/lib/mysql --usermysql --pid-file/var/lib/mysql/xxxxxxxx.com.pid --skip-external-locking
Top Process	%CPU 23.1	/usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir/ --datadir/var/lib/mysql --usermysql --pid-file/var/lib/mysql/xxxxxxxxxx.com.pid --skip-external-locking
nobody		0.29	0.69	0.0
Top Process	%CPU 1.2	/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL
Top Process	%CPU 1.1	/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL
Top Process	%CPU 1.0	/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL
root		0.06	2.52	1.9
Top Process	%CPU 3.5	/usr/bin/perl /scripts/restartsrv_mysql --check
Top Process	%CPU 1.0	/usr/sbin/exim -Mc 1KvIJp-0006Ev-1f
Top Process	%CPU 0.6	/usr/bin/spamd -d --timeout-child15 --timeout-tcp15 --allowed-ips127.0.0.1 --pidfile/var/run/spamd.pid --max-children30
mailnull		0.02	0.00	0.0
Top Process	%CPU 1.0	/usr/sbin/exim -bd -q60m
Top Process	%CPU 0.5	/usr/sbin/exim -bd -q60m
canna		0.00	0.40	0.0
Top Process	%CPU 0.3	/usr/sbin/cannaserver -syslog -u canna
Top Process	%CPU 0.1	/usr/sbin/cannaserver -syslog -u canna
dbus		0.00	0.00	0.0
xfs		0.00	0.00	0.0
eximstats		0.00	0.00	0.1
mailman		0.00	0.00	0.0
unauthenticated		0.00	0.00	0.0
htt		0.00	0.00	0.0
named		0.00	0.00	0.0

[Lynne]

Everything looks fine in your list of tasks except it looks to me like you have both Hourly Cleanup #1 and Hourly Cleanup #2 off. Is that true? I can't think of why you would want them off - they are needed for normal vbulletin use (as compared to the RSS Bot which is fine to turn off if you aren't using it). (In fact, you can screw things up by having those cleaners off - take a look at them.)

You might want to look those cron jobs up in your access_logs. It should have the full ulr in there (ie. cron.php?rand1225296001) and then you can see what time it was supposed to run and then look at your list and see which of the tasks it was that ran.

[servermin]

its been that high all hour. Server load climbed to over 100 once today. Just weird why it was working fine for months and now isn't

[Lynne]

Well, if you really have those cleaner jobs off, then you probably have some very large tables which may cause problems.

Like I said, figure out which job it is that is hanging like that. I'd also kill it if you can. If you find out which it is, try replacing the file. Also, look to see if a plugin is using a hook in one of the jobs and it is the plugin causing the problem (you can see the hook name in the file and then look at your list of plugins).

As for why it was fine and now isn't? I cannot explain why servers do the things they do and so I no longer even try. They truely baffle me at times.

[servermin]

I turned them off for just a minute to see if it made a difference (hourly cleanups). I've been running them.

What is the best way to look at the log and to kill it?

Sorry.

[SEOvB]

maybe you just need a server optimization in general?

Try altering the times the scripts run to make sure there is a longer pause in between them

[Marco van Herwaarden]

To me "psiStats 2006 Update " sounds like a possible resource hog. In order to find which Sched. Task is causing the problems, turn them off 1by1 for a short time to see if it makes any difference. Also you could check which tasks are supposed to run when you have this problem.